FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES
National Network
North Macedonia
Address
Vasil Gjorgov 19Country
City
SkopjeMobile Phone
+38970384728Telephone
+389 70 384 728E-Mail (2)
marjan.icoski@brainster.coWebsite
Click HereYear of Establishment
2015Contact Person1
Marjan IcoskiJob Title 1
Senior project and partnership developerContact Person 2
Aida SalketicJob Title 2
Head of International CooperationOrganisation Type
Private CompanyFields of Activity
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, International/Cultural relations, Others, Research, Youth and educationGeneral Information
Brainster Group is a technology and education ecosystem based in Skopje, North Macedonia, comprising three entities: Brainster CBC Collective (the flagship EdTech training organisation), Brainster Next College (the first accredited applied IT college in North Macedonia), and NU High School Academy (a youth digital skills and entrepreneurship academy with franchise operations across several EU countries).
Since 2015, the Group has trained over 17,000 individuals — students, professionals, jobseekers, civil servants, and NGO staff — through academies, bootcamps, live AI courses, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurship programmes. It operates AIatWork, a live AI upskilling platform with 7,000+ users and hundreds of corporate clients, with instructors from Google, Microsoft, Tesla, OpenAI, IBM, Amazon, Nasdaq, and Booking.com. The Group employs 55+ full-time professionals, collaborates with 150+ international instructors, and maintains active partnerships with 200+ companies and key national institutions including the Ministry of Education and Science, the Assembly of North Macedonia, and tens of municipalities.
Mission and Objectives
Brainster Group exists to make North Macedonia — and the Western Balkans broadly — known for the quality of its digital talent and the ambition of its young people. Founded in 2015, the Group has grown from a single coding bootcamp into the region's most comprehensive AI education and technology ecosystem, serving learners from age 14 through to senior professionals, public servants, and civil society organisations.Our mission is to close the gap between education and the economy — by building programmes that are practical before they are theoretical, industry-connected before they are accredited, and impact-driven before they are scalable. We believe that access to quality digital education is a civic right, not a privilege — and that the Euro-Mediterranean region's most urgent shared challenge is preparing its people for an AI-transformed world.Brainster Group operates at the intersection of education, technology, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. We train people to build things, launch businesses, serve their communities with better tools, and contribute to a region that is increasingly defined by its capacity to create — not only to consume — the technologies shaping the future.
Main Projects / Activities
Brainster Group's work spans six interconnected areas — AI upskilling, formal education, youth entrepreneurship, civil society transformation, public sector digitalisation, and international cooperation.
Its flagship AI platform, AIatWork, delivers live practical AI training to professionals and organisations across the Western Balkans, with 7,000+ active users, hundreds of corporate clients, and instructors from the world's leading technology companies. AIatSchool, endorsed by the Ministry of Education and Science as an official national partner, brings AI literacy into secondary schools through three parallel tracks for students, teachers, and school leaders — and extends into full school digitalisation including IoT infrastructure, digital textbooks, and smart classrooms.
For youth, the Group operates NU High School Academy — six-month academies in AI, coding, graphic design, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship for students aged 14–18, available in several EU countries through franchise partnerships — alongside the Gen-E: Learn to Earn EIT-funded entrepreneurship course and the newly launched Gen-Z Summer School. The High School Millionaire competition, launched in 2025, attracted over 470 business ideas from high school students across North Macedonia and generated 34,000+ public votes in its first edition — making it the country's largest youth entrepreneurship initiative to date.
For professionals and founders, AIPreneurship & Women in AI delivers a 6-month programme combining a Practical AI Implementation Academy (n8n, Lovable, Claude, voice agents) with a supported startup phase, culminating in a pitch to investors and the founding of at least one AI business per cohort. The AI Apprenticeship programme places graduates in monthly rotations across real partner companies for twelve months, with a placement guarantee.
For civil society and the public sector, AIforCivil Society delivers a 12-month AI transformation programme to NGOs and CSOs — covering tools, literacy, workflow implementation, and the capacity to build AI tools for beneficiaries — while Municipal AI & Public Sector has already served the Assembly of North Macedonia, the State Statistical Office, and 80+ municipalities with staff training, AI-assisted citizen services, and data governance frameworks.
Across all its work, Brainster Next College functions as the Group's ICT and AI technical lead — developing production-ready digital solutions for institutional clients, building real AI tools for public institutions, and maintaining a 100% employment rate for its first graduating cohort through its Career and Innovation Centres.
How can you contribute to the Network in your country?
Brainster Group is uniquely positioned to contribute to the ALF North Macedonia Network as a bridge between digital education, youth empowerment, and intercultural dialogue. We bring a physically grounded presence across the country — through AIatSchool outreach in schools, the High School Millionaire competition reaching youth from all regions, NU Academy programmes in smaller cities, and our AIforCivil Society programme serving the NGO community. This infrastructure enables us to actively mobilise young people, educators, civil society actors, and companies around the ALF's Euro-Mediterranean agenda. Concretely, we can contribute by: hosting intercultural dialogue events and workshops at the Brainster Technology Campus; integrating Euro-Mediterranean youth exchange components into our AIPreneurship, NU, and High School Millionaire programmes; connecting the North Macedonia network with EU counterparts through our NU franchise network and our Erasmus+ consortium partnerships; and advocating for digital inclusion as a dimension of intercultural understanding within the national and regional ALF network activities.
Why do you want to join the ALF Network?
Brainster Group shares the Anna Lindh Foundation's core conviction that education, dialogue, and cross-cultural exchange are the foundations of a more peaceful and inclusive Euro-Mediterranean region. We want to join the ALF Network because we believe that digital skills and AI literacy are now inseparable from civic participation, cultural access, and social inclusion — and that the Euro-Mediterranean region urgently needs organisations that can work at this intersection. Brainster is already doing this work in North Macedonia, and we see the ALF Network as the right framework to amplify it regionally, connect with like-minded partners across the Mediterranean, and contribute to an intercultural agenda that is fit for the digital age. We are particularly interested in co-creating projects with ALF members from Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries around youth entrepreneurship, AI literacy for civil society, women in technology, and intercultural digital exchanges — areas where Brainster's programmes and expertise are directly applicable and where the need is greatest.
Additional Information
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